Vehicle-spring.



PATENTED MAY 5, 1908.

F. R. SKIDMORB. VEHICLE SPRING. APPLICATION FILED PEBLO, 190B.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

lll/111111 Y www @Mailwey/ No. 886,488.v -PATENTED MAY 5, 1908.

P. R. SKIDMORE.

VEHICLE SPRING.'

APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 10l 1906.

2 SHEETS-SERT z.

FREDERICK R. SKIDMORE/OF MILWAUKEE,WISCONSIN.

VEHICLE-SPRING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented' May 5', 190s.

Application filed February 10, 1906. Serial No. 300,415.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK R. SKID- MORE, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Milwaukee," in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vehicle-S rings; and I do hereby declare that the'ffol owing is a full, clear, and exact de scri'tion thereof. i y

i y invention consists in certain peculiarities of construction and combination of parts as fully set forth hereinafter with reference to the accom anying drawings and subse uently claimed), its object being to rolvi( e a simple andconstant spring for ve- 1c es. v 1

In the drawings: Figure l represents a transverse sectional view of a portion of a vehicle with a spring attached vthe`reto,em bodying the features of my invention, and Figs. f2 and 3 detail views-of modiiied forms of said spring. i

Referring by letter to the drawings, A indicates a vehicle body, and C a Wheel mounted upon the rear aXle D thereof, which axle in this instance is shown incased into a sleeve D secured by clips E to a leaf-spring F, the latter forming one. arm of a bell-crank lever., The short arm F of said lever is also fastened to the leaf-s ring F, by suitable. clips, and is formed wit a hub G loosel f mounte l upon a st ud H, upon which the be crank liever swings. The end of the short arm F of the lever terminates with a head a interposed between opposite dis osed piston rods I,'I, which rods project t ough suitable stufiing boxes of cylinders J, J', into which are fitted pistons K, K', connected to the piston-rods. The cylinders, as shown, .form part of a bracket L, which is bolted to the vehicle-body, the yoke b of which carries the fulcrurn stud H of the bell-crank. Adjacent to the rear head of each cylinder are ports c in direct pipe connection with a compressed air storage tank M, the front heads of said cylinder being provided with springcontrolled check-valvesd, which serve as vents for the aforesaid )cylinders when the istons therein are forced forward, there being suicient leak around the piston-rods to prevent a vacuum upon* the'revrse stroke thereof.

When the several parte are in their normal ositiens, as shown in Fig. 1, the reservoir eing lled with com-pressedair, 'it will be seen th at the pistons are both forced forward axle.

against the wall of air, displacing the same from the cylinder and distributing it throughout the large area. of the reservoir and rear end of the opposite cylinder, thus owing to the small amount of displacement in proportion to the storage area, the variation in the resiliency of the cushion .would be so small that the spring action would practically remain constant throughout the stroke of the piston head and thereby avoid a shock, which would ordinarily occur. The same result would be obtained in the reverse direction were the wheel suddenly dropped into a depression, by the action of the piston in the rear cylinder J', so that by the construction and arrangement of parts, as aforesaid, the

vehicle-body is suspended upon an' air cush- Y ion which acts in either direction' to relieve shock, the' bell-crank in this instance being provided with a sprin arm to take off slight variations which wou d not be absorbed by the compressed air that must be normally suflicient to sustain the load. The ports of the cylinders are so located as to permit a cut-off of the reservoir by the pistons, previous to .the com letion of their stroke for the purpose of cus ioning said pistons at .this point. 1 Referring to Fig. 2, of the drawings, a construction isshown wherein the bell-crank lever F is formed in one piece and is pro-v vided with a dash-pot N at its outer end having a piston O, connected to an arm P, which arm is pivoted upon the fulcrumstud H of the bell-crank and carries the wheel- The said dash-pots in this caseserve as substitutes for the spring-arms of the bellcranks to absorb minor vibrations between the wheels and. saidbell-cranks.

B y this arrangement .should the wheel strike a large obstruction, the initial action would be to check theforward movement of said' wheel, resulting in a backward pull, on the link Q, which will cause the bell-crank to ex ert a direct pressure upon the forward pistonrod I, and the device will thereafter operate, similar to the forms shown in Figs. l and 2, of the drawings.

The dash-pots shown in Figs. 2 and 3, are

connected to the air-supply, and aresimilar in construction, iprovisionbeing made in the air-portf thereo for a cushion at the end of vthe piston-stroke.- This is accomplished by an air-passage g', which when the main passage g to the ortf is closed by the piston, permits slow lea age of the air so as to gradually allow the said piston to com lete its stroke.

While I have shown and. escribed several variations of my invention, it is understood that any means for accomplishing thiesults herein described are within the scopd'ofmy invention. i i

Both dash-pots and cylinders arealsop'rov vided with leads g, g., respectively, for the purpose of admitting air-pressure behind thelr pistons to start the same at the end of the piston strokes, and to protect the dash pots against. dust, they may be fitted with flexible dust guardsh, as shownI in Fig: 2, of the drawings.

I claim 1. A vehicle-spring comprising bell-cranks seefiza i-n pivotal. connection With Ythe vehicle, an 30 tion t o movement of the hangers' elther direction,- andan alr-contalmng resergvolr In unobstructed direct communication with the Y' air-receptacles, the. reservoir being of greater areathan the combined rece tacles and pro vided with air under a pre etermined constant pressure In testimony thatIclaim the vforegoingI vhave hereuntol set my hand at Milwaukee Ain the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin in the presence of two Witnesses.

FRED. R. SKIDMORE. Witnesses:

GEO. W. YOUNG, FRED PALM.

comprising l an' axle, 

